''For the music composer see

Bert Peters (composer) Bert E. Peters was a composer in the United States. His work was published as sheet music. The song "Tattle Tales" he composed with words by Harold Atteridge reportedly had good sales for music publisher Victor Kremer (producer), Victor Kremer. I ...

'' Albert Otto "Snowy" Peters (8 August 1908 – 13 June 1944) was an Australian rules footballer who played with

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). I ...

(VFL). He was nicknamed "Snow", "Snowie" or "Snowy", for his very thick straight fair hair.

Family

The son of Carl Erich Theodore Otto Peters (1872–1950), and Harriet Cordelia Peters (1874–1970), née Bond, Albert Otto Peters was born at

St Arnaud, Victoria St Arnaud is a town in the Wimmera region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 244 kilometres north west of the capital Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Northern Grampians local government area. At the , St Arnaud had a population of ...

on 8 August 1908. Eric drove gold mine trains in St. Arnaud before and after serving in the Boer War. When Snowy was young Eric relocated his big family to Wonthaggi some 378 km to drive coal engines. Eric and Harriet are buried in Wonthaggi Cemetery. Bert married Ruby Anzac Kernot (1916–68) a fisherman's daughter of Tooradin in September 1939. She died in Queensland aged 52.

Football career

Bert was one of seven North Melbourne players to make their league debut in the opening round of the

1930 VFL season The 1930 VFL season was the 34th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 3 May until 11 October, and comprised an 18- ...

. By the end of the year he had played 12 games and he added another five in the 1931 season, which would be his last. In each of his 17 appearances for North Melbourne, Peters finished on the losing team. This included a 168-point loss to

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a ...

Punt Road Oval Punt Road Oval, also known by naming rights sponsorship as the Swinburne Centre, is an Australian rules football ground and former cricket oval located within the Yarra Park precinct of East Melbourne, Victoria, situated a few hundred metres to ...

. The 199 points conceded by North Melbourne in that game remained a league record until 1969. Bert spent the remainder of his football career on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Ge ...

. He captain-coached Mornington Peninsula Football League club Sorrento from 1938 to 1940 and led them to the finals in each of those years, including the 1940 grand final against victors Somerville-Baxter. Before coming to Sorrento, Peters played for Dromana District in 1937,. Prior clubs were Wonthaggi up to 1930 then again 1932-34 then Cranbourne (1935) and Hastings (1936).

Military service

Bert was working as a teacher in

Red Hill South, Victoria Red Hill South is a rural locality and township on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, approximately south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local governme ...

when he enlisted with the

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

in 1941. He came to England in June 1943 for operational training. His first posting was to the

No. 455 Squadron RAAF No. 455 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) torpedo bomber squadron during World War II and became famous as part of the "ANZAC Strike Wing" that was formed from Australian and New Zealand squadrons. Raised in early 1941, mainly fro ...

and then the

No. 53 Squadron RAF No. 53 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron that saw service in both the First and Second World Wars. History No. 53 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at Catterick on 15 May 1916. Originally intended to be a training squadr ...

, which were based in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

Death

On 13 June 1944, Peters was a navigator on board the No. 53 Squadron's B-24 Liberator BZ818/C which had been sent to the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

to perform an anti-submarine patrol. The plane was shot down by

German submarine U-270 German submarine ''U-270'' was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 15 October 1941 at the '' Bremer-Vulkan-Vegesacker Werft'' (yard) in Bremen as yard number 35. She was laun ...

, with all crew members killed. Bert's body was never recovered. He is commemorated at the Air Forces Memorial, at Runnymede,Flying Officer Albert Otto Peters (408874)
''Commonwealth War Graves Commission''. and by a gumtree in Wonthaggi and on a plaque with his wife at All Saints Church Tooradin and another plaque in the Peace Garden at the Red Hill Consoldiation School organised by ex-pupil and later Shire of Flinders President, Keith Holmes.

Footnotes

References

R.A.A.F. Casualty List: Overseas: Missing Air Operations, ''The Age'', (Tuesday, 18 July 1944), p.3.

R.A.A.F. Casualty List: Overseas: Previously Reported Missing, Now Presumed Dead, ''The Age'', (Friday, 19 June 1945), p.5.

World War Two Service Record: Flying Officer Albert Otto Peters (408874)
''National Archives of Australia''.
World War Two Nominal Roll: Flying Officer Albert Otto Peters (408874)
''Department of Veteran's Affairs''.
Sportsmen's Honor Roll, ''The Weekly Times'', (Saturday, 19 July 1941), p.40.
* Mickle, D.J., ''Tooradin: a history of a sportsman's paradise and the first 100 years of State School no. 1503, compiled by D.J. Mickle and the Tooradin "Back to" Committee'', D.J Mickle, (Tooradin), 1975

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Bert 1908 births 1940s missing person cases 1944 deaths Australian military personnel killed in World War II Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Missing in action of World War II North Melbourne Football Club players Royal Australian Air Force officers Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II Aviators killed by being shot down